Stephen Hawking meets the circus clown and quantum mechanics crashes head-on into the red nose in this latest show from Pig Iron, a US company who have never quite fulfilled the promise of Gentlemen Volunteers, a Fringe hit of a few years back.
Flop certainly isn't one, but the physical work of its three female protagonists lacks the exquisite precision or emotional intensity of great fooling. Instead, it piles on the daffiness and winsomeness to such an extent that you keep thinking this trio must have trained at the Bridget Jones school of clowning.
Clowning is still very much a male preserve and it's a pity the company has smashed some stereotypes only to reinforce others, something underlined by the trio's personas - the fey one, the flirty one and the fierce one.
There are some nice ideas here - the rewinding of time to save the universe by returning the sun to its appointed place in the sky - but the melding of narrative and clowning is tentatively done and it is not until the final 15 minutes that the show has the impetus it needs. It is fun for all the family, but the hour is more of a pleasant theatrical whimper than a big bang.
· Until August 30. Box office: 0131-556 6550.
